It's sad when John McCain comes off as being better than Hillary Clinton regarding race-baiting.

I find McCain's comments on this matter (and Huckabee's too) to be thoughtful, intelligent and honorable. Three words I can't use to describe the comments of the majority of Clinton supports on here.

See, this is why people like McCain. I'm serious. He's more honorable than Clinton is, that's obvious. He may be an idiot and a war-monger, but people think he's at least decent. With Clinton? Not so much.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say it was all planned. The video gets out there, and McCain gets to take the high road.

Note: I don't really believe that. I'm just saying that THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!!! FOR MCCAIN!!!

Good for mccain. Let's see we have obama and mccain agreeing to run a high minded campaign addressing issues and policy and then we have the trailer trashers, the clintons, wanting to wallow in the muck and mud. Which would you prefer?

You've got this wrong: "Obama's wife saying that his candidacy has made him proud of America" - you mean "HER proud..." not "HIM proud..."

This is an old, & unfortunately pretty successful, Rovian campaign tactic- get the despicable libel worthy smear/disinformation out there on your opponent via a surrogate or in some roundabout way, then publicize it even more by decrying it. St. John stays pure while the mud still hits the target.

Rove runs McBush's campaign; no mistaking his dirty fingerprints on this one.

Exactly what I was thinking.

It speaks pretty ill of the GOPers that this sort of double standard is expected and condoned.

What America and the mainstream media along with talk radio and many pundits are doing to Obama right now is precisely why America has lost her global standing in the world.

It underscores the very issues that Wright was angry about, the social injustice and hypocrisy of America as they distribute thoroughly reprehensible tapes and endlessly loop Wrights snippets of a sermon to demonize Obama's candidacy.

Can no one see that this is precisely what our govenment did to Saddam Hussein and numerous other foreign leaders the way we hold disdain for others culture and promote Westernization is at the bottom of the jihadist extremism.

America does not respect other cultures even within it's own borders if the ethnic group is black.

The same anger that Wright expressed about America as a citizen who served in the military as a US Marine is the same anger that those responsible for 9/11 feel about America's hubris, arrogance and power.

this tape is nothing but the same type of propaganda our President and CIA push about heads of other nations when we decide they are no longer our allies.

It is these type of smear campaigns that justify and fan the flames of resentment, anger and hostility around econmic inequality and social injustice within the black community and which ministers address from the pulpit on Sunday mornings so that Americans who happen to be black can find spiritual meaning in their daily existence.

Indeed, why would McCain want to get involved? Then someone might ask him to explain some of the hideous things that Rod Parsley and John Hagee have said.

He should "reject and denounce"

Finally, the media is beginning to focus on important issues that can help defeat Republicans in the fall, rather than divisions among Democrats!
-Trevor Wynne
Washington, DC

Considering this guy got hired because of his willingness to attack Mitt Romney on his blog, this episode is hardly a shining beacon of principle in politics.

Rename the bus to the Hate Talk Express

I linked to the video because there would be no proof that it existed otherwise, obviously. for the same reason that it was linked to yesterday on the main blog on the front page.

to read something into that is deeply ridiculous. sorry.

Why stop only at suspension?

http://OsiSpeaks.com

The graciousness of McCain and Huckabee contrasts starkly with Hillary's bottom feeding efforts to exploit the Wright controvesy to grovel for superdelegates.

This self-proclaimed crosser of the commander-in-chief threshold has one threshold she'll never cross -- the one labeled character and decency.

McCain's actions today underscore why he'll win moderate, independent voters and many Obama supports who will defect if she wins the nomination.

The video is nothing less than what is to be expected in the GE. This version is just practice for the main event. The late-October videos will likely contain (legit or otherwise) video footage of Obama in the Church's front row, nodding his head in a agreement with the good Reverend Wright's "US of KKK A."

It's a well done video.

Sen. Clinton's refusal to defend Obama, not just against scurrilous tactics (the metaphorical crucifiction of Jeremiah Wright for political gain and just pure fun), but against the implication that Obama himself holds any belief similar to those in the Wright cariacature tape is so deeply disappointing.

For me this is a character issue that is far more important that your exact plan for health care or energy independence. Those are of course words on paper. Your character cannot be tinkered with by experts or changed in committee or subverted by lobbyist. It is who you are.

John McCain for all his beliefs that I disagree with him on, is a fundamentally decent person who is willing to respect and defend the honor of those he disagrees with.

Mr. Clinton cannot bear to bring herself to do it, apparently because this is her last best hope of being elected. Of course she has never been able to do it. It's because of who she is.

That is shocking and so disappointing to me considering she is someone who has been so long a target of unfair, false, scurrilous and vicious negative attacks. Especially for someone who relied on so many of us defending her and her husband for so long. This whole affairis not just a campign tactic. This is not just "vetting". This is not a necessary gauntlet or a routine hazing. It is the politics of personal destruction (against Mr. Wright, all the members of his congregation, and of course Sen. Obama)and it is fundamentally dishonorable.

There are many, many circumstances when I would willingly vote for the nominee of the party of which I am a member even when my candidate of preference loses. Indeed I have done it many times. (and just for the record, I supported in primaries Gore in 88, Kerrey in 92, Clinton in 96, Gore in'00, and Dean in '04). At first it is hard, but one reconciles.

Alas, if Obama does not win the nomination, I feel I could not do this for Sen. Clinton. I won't vote for her. I guess I won;t vote at all. She simply lacks the character, and this sad incident, I am truly sorry to say, proves it.

This came from Michael Sherer at Swampland in discussing the suspension of the McCain staffer responsible for spreading the tripe:

Dayton’s suspension comes just a week after the McCain campaign sent reporters a opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Obama’s relationship with Wright showed his radical agenda. The McCain campaign later said that the article was sent out in error, and McCain told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that he does not hold Wright’s inflammatory statements against Obama.

Yes, John McCain is very classy. His campaign, on the other hand, is as sleazy as they come.

What about McStain's illegitimate black baby? How did THAT happen?

Why didn't McCain save this for the general election? Obama is supposedly the candidate Republicans want.

McCain's hands obviously aren't clean in this area so it's only self-interest to pronounce that candidates aren't responsible for all the opinions/words of their supporters and endorsers. However even giving lip service to this opinion is better than Hillary essentially mocking Obama's speech when she was in Michigan pandering to the voters and conniving with the state party to get her own way. McCain looks classy and Hillary has absolutely no class at all.

Here is the bottom line.

Of course Obama couldn't kick Wright to the curb, since it appears that probably 80% of African-Americans agree with Wright's statements. Obama can't afford to lose any votes.
After his speech I didn't know what he was running for, maybe president of the coming one world govt.
He has relatives all over the world. How can he know this? Just try tracking ancestry back past your great grandfather sometime.
I"m starting to see the "snake oil salesmen" show thru his finely crafted facade

Repeat 100x --McCain has no virtues

Let me count the ways he is such a scoundrel:
He misspeaks, he makes gaffe. He blunders along. Is it that he doesn't know or that his mind is gone? Whatever it is, older Republican politicians get a pass. Fun guys...

McCain is dangerous though.
Straight talker speaks with forked tongue!
He says he is a nice person but he seems to be as nice as the Clintons: he said horrible things about Chelsea Clinton and answered sweetly the Hillary, the bitch question sent his way.
It's been long known that McCain speaks with forked tongue (torture is good, torture is bad, immigration is good, immigration is bad, lobbying is good, lobbying is bad--he is, indeed, the candidate of change), plus, he has a hair-trigger temper, plus, a trophy wife who looks like a zombie.

He dumped his disabled first wife to marry his current fabulously wealthy trophy wife and beer heiress.
She's some sort of control freak/pill addict and he's just seconds away from exploding on someone who crosses him.
The lobbyists drive his straight talk bus and once in the Oval office he'd probably enjoy watching the military waterboard someone. He's dangerous!
Dr Wu, the last of the big time thinkers

unbelievable.

"We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign."

A stinking reprimand? He should have been FIRED. Since he was not, this was done with knowledge as in wink wink nod nod and now the vid is out there but McSame can continue to walk about sainted.

What is TPM waiting for to report PassportGate? This is huge news!

If the Bush Administration knew Obama's info at the state dept had been breached 50 days ago - its ABSURD that he was not informed till now.

Of course McShame cannot say too much not only because of his recently proclaimed acceptance of Hagee but also in the past having called Robertson and Falwell "Agents of Intolerance" and now accepts their endorsement and specifically stated he no longer thinks of them as such!! A side by side video of his (and the preachers comments) would be worse than the Wright videos IMHO.

Just one quibble: did you have to use the word 'tar' in relation to Obama? Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but when your story is about race baiting...well, damn!